The Thinking Mind Podcast: Psychiatry & Psychotherapy

Mary Morgan is an individual and couples psychoanalyst, Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society and Honorary Member of the Polish Society for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. She has written extensively in the field of couple psychoanalysis and teaches and supervises internationally. She is the author of ‘A Couple State of Mind: Psychoanalysis of Couples and the Tavistock Relationships Model’...

Dr Livia Martucci is a consultant in perinatal psychiatry, and is the clinical lead for perinatal services in South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. She is experienced in assessment and management of many common and complex mental health problems including anxiety, panic, OCD, depression and other disorders such as Bipolar Disorder as well as psychotic illnesses, both in the perinatal per...

Dr Awais Aftab is a psychiatrist in Cleveland, Ohio and Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University. He is the author of Conversations in Critical Psychiatry - a 2024 Oxford University Press book, based on a series in the Psychiatric Times - https://www.awaisaftab.com/conversations-in-critical-psychiatry.html.   He also writes Psychiatry at the Margins , a  substa...

Professor Brendan Kelly is a leading psychiatrist, author, and researcher. He is a Professor of Psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin and Consultant Psychiatrist at Tallaght University Hospital.  He has authored over 20 books, including, The Science of Happiness, The Modern Psychiatrist's Guide to Contemporary Practice and Resilience: Lessons from Sir William Wilde on Life After Covid.  Among...

Professor David Taylor is Director of Pharmacy and Pathology at the Maudsley Hospital and Professor of Psychopharmacology at KCL. David is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology. Professor Taylor has been the lead author of the Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines since their inception in 1993. David has also authored over 375 clinical papers in journals such as t...

Mentalisation-Based Therapy (MBT) is a structured, evidence-based psychotherapy designed to enhance a person’s ability to mentalise, especially in emotionally intense situations. It was developed by today's guests Prof.   Peter Fonagy and Prof. Anthony Bateman for treating borderline personality difficulties (BPD) but has since been adapted for other mental health conditions, including anti-s...

Today Alex discusses the concept of self-esteem; including core components of self-esteem, how poor self-esteem can affect your life and how people's self-esteem becomes disrupted through the lens of different psychological theories. We also discuss different interventions one could consider to improve their self-esteem, any why good self-esteem is essential for a successful life.  Further re...

Adam Lane Smith is a renowned Attachment Specialist with over 15 years of experience in psychology and relationships. Formerly a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, he has dedicated his career to helping individuals and couples overcome attachment issues and build secure, meaningful connections. Adam has worked with a diverse clientele, including death row inmates and Fortune 500 executives. A...

Alex Ruck Keene KC (Hon) is a barrister at 39 Essex Chambers in London, specializing in mental capacity, mental health, and healthcare law.  In recognition of his significant contributions beyond the courtroom, Alex was appointed Honorary King's Counsel in March 2022. Beyond his legal practice, Alex is involved in academia and policy development. He serves as a Professor of Practice at the Di...

Joanna Moncrieff is a British psychiatrist, researcher, and professor of critical and social psychiatry at University College London (UCL). She is widely recognised for her critical perspectives on psychiatric medication and the biomedical model of mental health. Her work challenges conventional ideas about the role of drugs like antidepressants and antipsychotics, advocating instead for a nuanced...

Richard Benthall is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Sheffield in the UK. His research has focusued on the psychological mechanisms of severe mental illness (such as hallucinations and delusions) and social factors that affect these conditions. His work along with the work of other researchers is responsible for psychological interventions (such as cognitive behaviour therap...

Dr. Adam Hunt (PhD) is a post-doc researcher at the University of Cambridge and the host of the Evolving Psychiatry podcast which provides interviews, insights and an introduction to evolutionary psychiatry, with guest appearances from leading academics and psychiatrists. His upcoming book Specialised Minds which seeks to explains the existence of long term, common mental disorders, and common per...

Today Alex chats with Dr. Alex Meaburn, a speciality doctor in psychiatry who has been working on the podcast behind the scenes. They discuss some of the limitations of psychiatry including problems with the biomedical model of depression, social-cultural reasons for mental health problems, crticisms of anti-depressants, dysfunctional attitudes towards suffering, the pros and cons of psychotherapy...

This podcast is a guide to making any kind of resolution towards long term behaviour change. It includes a step by step guide to implementing a new behaviour including choosing an area to work on, framing your resolution appropriately, setting an intention, making a plan, measuring your results, leveraging positive and negative emotions to your advantage, anticipating identity level change, and mu...

This week's episode is a live Q & A recorded at Trinity Rugby Club in South London. Dr. Alex is interviewed by Andrew Edwards the Director of Rugby at the club and they discuss various topics such as: - Modern problems men face - Difficulties with dating and relationships - Preventing anxiety and depression - Making friends with failure - The value of introspection - The importance of fac...

Dr Hamilton Morrin is a psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and an NIHR academic clinical fellow at King's College London researching neuropsychiatric disorders using neurotechnology. He is a Trustee for Gaming the Mind, a charity that promotes positive mental health within the gaming community and the games industry by raising awareness of mental health challenges...

Mark Horowitz is a training psychiatrist, now working as a Clinical Research Fellow at UCL. He is an Associate Editor of the journal Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology and has edited a collection of papers in the journal on Discontinuing PsychiatricMedication. He has a PhD in psychopharmacology and the neurobiology of depression from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience...

Matilda Gosling is an author, social scientist and researcher, with two books that cover parenting, development and mental health. Evidence-Based Parenting came out in January 2024, and Teenagers: The Evidence Base will be published in the new year.  Her latest book uses evidence from social and experimental psychology, neuroscience, family systems and adolescent development (among others) to exam...

This week we're taking a well deserved break, so if you're looking for something to listen to you can check out one of our recent episodes - including our episode last week breaking down the factors that make for successful psychotherapy, our recent conversation exploring the fundamentals of self-development, and our November episode illustrating 8 lessons we learned making our first 100...

Today Alex discusses 16 factors common to most kinds of therapy which help people to improve the quality of their lives including skills development, gaining new insights about old patterns, forming a reparative relationship with the therapist, being challenged, having their experiences normalised and much more. The book referenced in this podcast is Integration in Counselling & Psychotherapy...

Today Alex chats with Dr. Alex Meaburn, a speciality doctor in psychiatry who has been working on the podcast behind the scenes. They discuss some of the fundamentals of self-development including how to audit your time, break out of unhelpful patterns, some of the problems of modern living, the importance to cultivating your intuition, why play is fundamental to our lives, and much more. If you w...

What is the effect of nature on our mental health? Today Alex speaks with Prof. Chris Dayson & Dr. Annette Haywood, who have conducted research involving 8000 people, who were given nature-based interventions (such as nature walks, community gardening, tree planting and wild swimming) to help them with their mental health difficulties across seven different sites in the UK. See below link to a...

In this episode Alex discusses 8 lessons he learned from making the first 100 episodes of the podcast, including how to deal with success and failure, internal and external obstacles, creativity, peristence and much more. Audio-Essay by Dr. Alex Curmi. Dr. Curmi is a consultant general adult psychiatrist with a sub-speciality in addictions who completed his training in the South London and Maudsle...

In this week's podcast we discuss five different problems facing the modern world, including the decline in critical thinking, political polarisation, the overreliance on technology and more, and how they are contributing to a rise in mental health problems. Audio-Essay by Dr. Alex Curmi. Dr. Curmi is a consultant general adult psychiatrist with a sub-speciality in addictions who completed hi...

Nancy Gee, Ph. D is a Professor of Psychiatry in Human Animal Interaction, and the Director of the Centre for Human Animal Interaction at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, VA. The Centre is the only one of its kind to be housed in a School of Medicine, and in addition to research and educational activities it also houses the “Dogs On Call” therapy dog program. With over 90 DOC vo...